Two blocks evacuated in Equality

Equality residents in the McDuffy Street area suffered many anxious hours Thursday afternoon and into the night as police tried to negotiate with a man reported to be in a trailer violent, armed and high on methamphetamine.

Equality residents in the McDuffy Street area suffered many anxious hours Thursday afternoon and into the night as police tried to negotiate with a man reported to be in a trailer violent, armed and high on methamphetamine.

Police evacuated a two-block area around the trailer on the north side of McDuffy Street into the night. As it finally turned out, he was not in the trailer.

Gallatin County Sheriff Department and Illinois State Police assisted Equality Police in the matter. Sheriff Shannon Bradley said the situation began as a domestic battery report about 2 p.m. by a woman whose identity Equality Police are not releasing. They are also not yet releasing the name of the man involved, Bradley said.

The woman left the trailer and contacted Equality Police Chief Tony Lloyd who arrived at the location within about 3 minutes, Bradley said. He arranged for a safe place for the woman and her family took her to Harrisburg Medical Center for treatment of an injury to her finger, Bradley said.

The woman told Lloyd the man was still inside the trailer.

"She believed he was still inside the trailer, he had been doing meth, was very high and had weapons in the house," Bradley said.

Lloyd called for Illinois State Police to assist and a negotiator used a loudspeaker and telephone to try to convince the man to exit the trailer.

"It went on most of the night," Bradley said.

Finally, police made the decision to enter the trailer and found no one inside.

Police believe the man had left in the few minutes between the woman leaving and the arrival of police, Bradley said.

Bradley said police continued to gather information about the man's whereabouts Friday morning.